BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 13
By Fidan Babayeva – Trend:
The level of industrialization in Azerbaijan is rather higher than that in neighboring countries and this makes the country closer to achieving the goals of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Acting Director of the Institute for Scientific Research on Economic Reforms under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy Arzu Huseynova told Trend.
"COVID-19 and its consequences had a negative impact on the development of the country's economy," acting director added. "The anti-crisis measures have been developed and are being taken to get out of forced isolation. Azerbaijan is concerned about the future of its economy in the post-pandemic period both amid problems caused by quarantine regime and amid a decrease in external revenues due to low energy prices."
Huseynova emphasized that Azerbaijan is one of the three least economically affected countries as a result of the pandemic, all three of which are energy exporters in the Middle East and Central Asia.
"Azerbaijan allocated 3.5 billion manat that’s $2.05 billion (4.3 percent of GDP) to combat the pandemic," she said. "The fight against the consequences of the pandemic consists of two stages. So, the deepening of the crisis is being prevented and all actions are aimed at maintaining stability."
"At the second stage, the economic recovery will begin and the access to the markets that create cheap financial and light tax burden and demand is more important for this," Huseynova said. "In this regard, the Ministry of Economy has rendered direct financial assistance to more than 129,000 entrepreneurs in connection with the pandemic."
While speaking about the entrepreneurship support mechanisms, Huseynova emphasized that the new approach which is used by the Ministry of Economy in the field of concessional financing of entrepreneurship and the launch of an e-credit platform is aimed at further support and development of private organizations.
"The amount of concessional financing for entrepreneurs is one billion manat ($588 million) without state guarantees," Huseynova said. "It renders support for the existing loan portfolio in the amount of up to one million manat ($588,235), as well as a state guarantee for 60 percent of new loans worth up to 500 million manat ($294 million)."
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